Great Reporting in Valdosta Daily Times

Women's Resource Center and the Georgia DV Media Watch applauds Malynda Fulton of the Valdosta Daily Times for her article on the high number of recent DV homicides in her city.

VALDOSTA — Domestic violence continues to steadily rise in the area, as indicated by the rash of violent and deadly crimes among acquaintances that have occurred in recent months in Valdosta.

On Monday, July 20, Dr. John H. “Bud” Curtis, 72, was discovered dead in his 1100 Williams St. residence. Police later arrested his roommate, William Mark Love, 40, and charged him with malice murder, according to the Valdosta Police Department.

Two days later in an unrelated incident, the body of 17-year-old Brittany Wade, a mother of two young children, was discovered in a shallow grave in a Bunche Street back yard. Law enforcement officers arrested the children’s father, Jonathan Barrett, 21, and charged him with her murder.

Last month, a Moody Air Force Base airman threw his wife from a third-story balcony then committed suicide. Though the wife survived, she sustained broken bones in both of her arms.

Just three days before this incident, the body of Tammy Smith, 45, was discovered in a grassy area on Cypress Street. Her longtime boyfriend, Richard Morrison, 48, was charged with her murder.

These specific incidents, in addition to a growing number of battery cases that local law enforcement agencies have responded to in the area, all involve people from different backgrounds with different lifestyles.

The Haven Executive Director Michelle Girtman said anyone can be affected by domestic abuse.

“Potentially anyone can become a victim of domestic violence,” she said. “Alcohol, drugs and poor economic conditions elevate tendencies toward violence.”

Domestic violence, along with emotional abuse, are behaviors used by one person in a relationship to control the other. Partners may be married or not married; heterosexual, gay, or lesbian; living together, separated or dating.

Girtman added that domestic violence affects more than just the victims.

“Domestic violence is thought to be a private matter, and people do not want to get involved,” Girtman explained. “However, domestic violence is a crime and should be recognized as such. It is a crime that not only affects the individual but children, family members and friends. Ignoring domestic violence will not make it go away.”

Nonetheless, family members tend to ignore domestic violence and deny that problems exist, Girtman said.

Because ignoring the abuse can lead to dangerous, even deadly situations, Girtman said it is best to always tell someone about domestic violence.

“The shame belongs to the abuser, not the victim,” she said. “This is why we urge victims to call The Haven for information on resources that are available and for assistance in developing a safety plan. We also encourage victims to call the police and report the crime.”

According to HelpGuide.org, types of domestic violence include emotional or psychological abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and financial abuse. Warning signs that someone is a victim of domestic violence include frequent injuries with excuses for accidents, harassing phone calls from a partner, fear of a partner, personality changes, isolation from friends or family, insufficient resources to live, depression or low self-esteem and submissive behavior.

It is so rare for reporters to connect the dots between DV homicides for their readers, or to use moments like these to educate. Please contact the Daily Times to let Ms. Fulton know you appreciate her reporting.

Murder-Suicide in East Point

Again, from the AJC:

Following an anniversary party that ended in a murder-suicide tragedy, East Point police know the victims. They know the shooter. But what they don’t know is why 87-year-old George Doby killed his wife and grandson Sunday.

“We still don’t have that question answered,” said East Point Police Det. Cliff Chandler. “I’ve worked plenty of murders, but nothing like this.”

Police say Doby shot his grandson, 12-year-old Jacob Doby, and then his 82-year-old wife, Moiselle “Edna” Doby before turning the large caliber gun on himself in the backyard of his Stone Road home.

The family had gathered that day to celebrate the couple’s 57th wedding anniversary.

The couple’s daughter and other relatives were inside when they heard gunshots shortly before 2:30 p.m. and found the people outside, East Point police Det. Cliff Chandler said.

“I just heard explosions,” said the couple’s next-door neighbor, Margaret Bowman. “There were two ... then two more ... and another.”

The boy and his grandmother had multiple gunshot wounds, and the woman’s husband had a single self-inflicted gunshot wound, Chandler said.

Autopsies are being conducted Monday, authorities said.

“[The family] was devastated,” Chandler said. “They didn’t see it coming.”

Bowman, who’s known the couple for 44 years, said the man was losing his eye sight and was struggling to take care of his wife who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.

“I think he feared he was not going to be able to keep taking care of her,” Bowman said. “He was overwhelmed.”

This is the second Atlanta-area murder-suicide involving longtime married couples in their 80s in less than two weeks. On July 15, 86-year-old Edward Travis shot 85-year-old Anne Travis, his wife of 60 years, in Avondale Estates.

East Point Police don’t have a motive in Sunday’s killing.

Police confirmed that Moiselle Doby suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and said the grandson was autistic.

“Right now we don’t have any reason as to why this shooting took place,” said Chandler. “We’re perplexed. The family’s perplexed.”

According to the United Spinal Association, people with disabilities, like Parkinson's and Autism, are more likely to be victims of domestic violence and abuse by their loved ones than are the rest of the population. This is true of physical abuse, verbal abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, overdosing or withholding medication, stealing money, immobilization, financial abuse and denying necessary equipment. People with disabilities are more likely to be abused for a longer duration and to suffer abuse from more than one individual. People with disabilities are more likely to depend on their abusers for food, personal care services, health care support and other vital roles.

Each domestic violence death is tragic and our hearts go out to the families of the women taken from them. But, this recent rash of DV killings in Georgia can only be described as chilling. There have been 69 domestic violence homicides in our state so far this year. Click the "Georgia" or "Local News" links below for details.

DV Murders in Valdosta

A Valdosta man has been arrested in connection with the death of a teen girl whose body was found Wednesday.

Valdosta Police Lt. Bobbi McGraw said Jonathan Barrett, 21, is charged with the murder of 17-year-old Brittany Wade.

Wade’s body was discovered in a shallow grave at 1029 Bunche St., where the suspect’s aunt resides.

The victim did not live at the residence.

Barrett was apprehended within hours of the discovery of Wade’s body. He was charged with murder and transported to Lowndes County Jail after Valdosta police and detectives questioned him Wednesday evening.

McGraw said that Wade’s body has been sent to the state crime lab for an autopsy.

At this time, the cause of death is not known; however, the victim did have trauma to her body, McGraw said. It appears that the victim died the night before her body was discovered.

The exact time of death will be determined after the autopsy report returns.

Barrett was a former acquaintance of the victim. He is also the father of Wade’s two children.

Valdosta police also questioned “a person of interest” Thursday night in an unrelated afternoon shooting death of another young woman.

The 20-year-old woman was alive at approximately 4:30 p.m., when emergency responders left the scene of the Tyndall Drive residence, said Valdosta Police Lt. Bobbi McGraw. The woman was taken by ambulance to an area hospital. McGraw reported her death to The Valdosta Daily Times at approximately 5:40 p.m.

Police were officially still working this case as a suspicious death Thursday evening. The woman’s identity was being withheld pending notification of all family members.

Investigators reported the woman as being shot in her torso. People at the scene and police conversation noted the woman was shot in the throat.

Authorities were questioning a black male, believed to be in a relationship with the woman.

Prior to his being taken into custody, police were searching for a man described as wearing gray boxers and no shirt, or gray boxers and a gray shirt. He was also reportedly covered in blood.

The incident happened at approximately 4 p.m. Thursday at a duplex-style townhouse at 3126 Tyndall Drive. Authorities found a young black woman shot inside the residence. Emergency-medical personnel reportedly did not have room to treat her inside the residence. She was removed from the townhouse and taken by ambulance to an area hospital.

Dallas, GA - DV Murder-Suicide

Via the AJC:

Dallas police are investigating a domestic murder-suicide.

Police said Brad Armstrong, 35, shot and killed his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend Heather McCarthy after the couple had broken up. Then Armstrong fatally shot himself.

Officers responded around 4:30 p.m. Thursday to a report of the bodies being found at the Merchants Courts apartments, police spokesman Sgt. Bill Gorman said.

The couple had been together for about a year until McCarthy ended the relationship two weeks ago, Gorman said.

Relatives told police the Armstrong was physically abusive, and had attacked McCarthy days before the breakup. Gorman said police have no reports of domestic violence between the couple.

Obama Opens Asylum for Some Battered Women

The Obama administration has opened the way for foreign women who are victims of severe domestic violence and sexual abuse to receive asylum in the United States.

The action reverses a Bush administration stance in a protracted and passionate legal battle over the possibilities for battered women to become refugees.

In addition to meeting other strict conditions for asylum, abused women will need to show that they are treated by their abuser as subordinates and little better than property, according to an immigration court filing by the administration, and that domestic abuse is widely tolerated in their country. They must show that they could not find protection from institutions at home or by moving to another place within their own country.

The administration laid out its position in an immigration appeals court filing in the case of a woman from Mexico who requested asylum, saying she feared she would be murdered by her common-law husband there. According to court documents filed in San Francisco, the man repeatedly raped her at gunpoint, held her captive, stole from her and at one point tried to burn her alive when he learned she was pregnant.

The government has marked a clear, although narrow, pathway for battered women seeking asylum, lawyers said, after 13 years of tangled court arguments, including resistance from the Bush administration to recognize any of those claims.

Moving cautiously, the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately recommend asylum for the Mexican woman, who is identified in the court papers only by her initials as L.R. But the department, in the unusual submission written by senior government lawyers, concluded in plain terms that “it is possible” that the Mexican woman “and other applicants who have experienced domestic violence could qualify for asylum.”

As recently as last year, Bush administration lawyers had argued in the same case that in spite of her husband’s brutality, L.R. and other battered women could not meet the standards of American asylum law.

“This really opens the door to the protection of women who have suffered these kinds of violations,” said Karen Musalo, a professor who is director of the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Professor Musalo has represented other abused women seeking asylum and recently took up the case of L.R.

Read the entire New York Times article.

We applaud the Obama administration for recognizing the dangers of domestic violence and offering our country's protection to survivors, though it is ironic that one of the requirements for potential asylees is proof that domestic violence is widely tolerated in their country. We challenge an appeals court to find a country where domestic violence is not widely tolerated, including this one.